Phoenix King of the Eldar
by AlwaysBetOnVoid
Summary: He grew up with a number for a name-cold and lonely as an orphan. When a farseer of Craftworld Biel-tan acts on the dreams that have been plaguing the skein of the future, the human is forced on a path to bring the Eldar back from the brink of extinction. The path that will lead him to become the greatest protector of the Eldar since the Golden Ages. The path...to the Phoenix King.
1. The Boy Named 46

**A/N: This story is adopted from the original "Phoenix King of the Eldar" story by LONGNodaichi, I am very honored to take it over.**

**PLEASE NOTE: If you were a follower of that story, you'll notice the vastly different plot and system that I will go with. The concept of the Phoenix King will remain the same...PLEASE do not flip out at me because I still have the original story saved on a word document and you will commonly see themes, words, and concepts from that story.**

**So PLEASE don't flip out at me.**

**But please, read and review. I'll update this less than TBTWBE but still will be up there on my priorities.**

**Also, I'm looking for a beta reader...**

**All rights belong to their respective owners, I own OC's.**

* * *

**Ophelia III, Orpheus Sector, Segmentum Tempestus**

**41st Millennium**

_FASTER! RUN FASTER!_

These were the thoughts of the barely six year old human boy as he raced through the snow trodden forests of Ophelia III's Gargantua forest. The forest covered about half of Ophelia III's second largest continent and in the midst of winter, it could be a very inhospitable place. The frost and ice bit at each inch of his exposed skin and it pained him greatly but nothing like anything he'd just scene.

The boy's dark tan skin and jet black hair indicated he was of Tallarnian origin, but none of that really mattered right now. The snow was fluctuating between deep and shallow, causing the boy to stumble in his attempts to run away from a bloodthirsty monster. Tears flowed down his cheeks as he struggled to come to terms with what he'd just seen.

But Sister Nena's last words were burned into his brain.

_FASTER! RUN FASTER!_

He wailed out his misery as he suddenly tripped and tumbled down a small slope, flinging snow into his eyes and mouth. His light coat and pants were becoming drenched and heavily wet, giving him no comfort whatsoever. He looked up through bloodshot eyes to see the the snowflakes coming down slowly, but he had no time to ravel in their beautiful nature, for something of pure evil was out there looking for him.

He quickly got up and kept running as fast as his legs could carry him-he ducked under fallen logs and leaped across tiny streams, an unusual feat of endurance for a mere boy. However, exhaustion soon caught up to him as he leaned over to breathe in precious air. He got on his hands and knees for a couple moments before he made his way to the one place he knew in the Gargantua Forest-his hollow.

The hollow was as its name suggested-a place he'd always use to run to in order to escape the busy and orderly life of the orphanage run by the Adeptus Sororitas. No matter how caring the orphanage that had taken him in since he was a child, he hated everything about it except for a couple of people.

He hated the fact that his name was quite simply, the number 46.

His real name? No child in the orphanage had a real name, their biological parents either died before they could give them one or they were simply abandoned. 46 had no memories of his parents, and now was not the time to think back on something he could not remember.

46 trudged on through the snow, holding his shivering arms against his body in an almost vain attempt to keep warm. If he could just reach the large tree that was his hollow, he could perhaps rest and regain his warmth.

Once again, 46 traveled through the snow filled environment in the darkening night. The sun was not completely set but it would soon be and if he did not reach his hollow soon, he would surely die out here.

Alone...bitter...cold.

The fact that his tears were keeping his face lightly warm was enough to make him laugh a little but no less happier. The fact that something terrible was out there hunting him, scared him out of his mind.

A couple minutes later, he breathed a sigh of relief as he saw through the snow his hollow. The hollow was built into a tall standing tree that even with its base completely void of wood, still stood as strong as ever.

He looked around to make sure nothing else was around before he walked up to the tree at the top of the slope and carefully prodded open its small wooden entrance, just big enough for a child his size to enter. 46 quickly shut it behind him and wiped away his tears. It was noticeably warmer in here even without a flame going so he immediately looked around for a candle and a match. Soon, he had a small flame going.

46 took off his drenched clothes and let them dry by the heat, but he soon realized just how terrible his situation was. He was out here alone, while something terrible stalked the forests...something...daemonic.

The word struck a psychological terror across his heart as he struggled to get warm. He had heard stories of them, servants of the dreaded chaos, out there to eat the very flesh off of your mind and body.

And then, he remembered.

* * *

_"Get the children out of here!" __yelled a battle sister as she looked upward as she fired her large bolter into a horde of oncoming humanoid type creatures. Soon more sisters were joining her in blasting apart the servants of chaos._

_The orphanage was located in a large compound run by a division of Adeptus Hospitaller sisters. A series of walls formed around the compound in the shape of an octagon and prevented anything from getting in...or getting out. The Adeptus Hospitallars were very kind sisters, but the orphanage was nothing special, it kept a strict way of life and for some children, like 46, it could get a bit overwhelming._

_But none of that mattered as soon as a deranged Slaaneshi cultist began summoning daemonettes onto the city of Talicor where the orphanage was situated. And as every loyal citizen of the Emperor knows, as soon as you let Chaos in, it can get exponentially larger and be very hard to contain._

_Now as warp portals began summoning themselves on the vulnerable planet, sisters of battle were struggling to stem the tide. There was a call for reinforcements, but they would not be there for at least another day or two._

_Until then, the daemonettes rampaged._

_46 watched from his bedroom window as the compound was breached and daemons and cultists alike stormed through, over running anything and everything in their path. His bedroom was on the second floor and he immediately rushed out, joining the many children in the hallways crying for someone to guide them._

_They all ran in the same direction-towards the Great Hall where the children ate and they soon found themselves inside and sisters of battle were barricading the main door. Sister Nena tried to calm them down._

_46 had known Sister Nena since the day he first came to Ophelia III and she'd been like a mother to him just as much to any other child. She wore a hooded white robe with a medical arm in place of a real one on her left._

_She was trying to get them to pray and remain calm but 46 knew it was all in vain. He read in the orphanage's libraries...there was no stopping Chaos this time._

_Realizing nothing was working, Nena homed in on 46 like a radar and weaved her way through the crowd of children to get to him. She knelt down in front of him and placed her hands on his shoulders._

_"...46...do remember the story of the children running from the Great Enemy? And how they were lead by one of their own?" she asked, trying to smile through tears._

_46 trembled but replied, "Y-Ye-Y-Yes."_

_"I need you to relive that story right now, exactly how I told you. I need you right now 46. The Emperor needs you." she smiled with a hand placed on his cheek._

_"But...but...I want to stay!" he pleaded._

_"It is not safe here! You must leave. Listen to me 46...there is a dropship capable of taking all the children away from here and it is prepping itself for launch outside the compund. I know about the tunnels 46. I've always known about them. Now is the time to use them for a purpose other than escaping the orphanage to be alone. You need to escape to survive." she said._

_46 began to cry, but he nodded._

_Nena smiled through tears of her own, "Be strong 46, I will always watch over you. May the Emperor guide you."_

_She stood up and yelled for the children to head to the back door. All in all, there was about 50-100 children in this wing of the orphanage alone. Other hospitaller sisters were likely giving similar instructions to children of their own._

_Nena reached the door and looked to 46 and nodded. 46 turned and in the loudest voice he could, he yelled, "Follow me! I know the way out!"_

_No child was willing to argue with someone as resourceful as 46 and immediately, two battle sisters thrust open the back door, revealing a long hallway towards the back of the orphanage._

_46 took off running, with many small footsteps behind him. When all the children had passed him, he heard a force trying to break down the main door to the Great Hall and sister Nena pointed at him to run._

_FASTER! RUN FASTER!_

* * *

46 was stirred awake suddenly as he rubbed his eyes and yawned, as much as he didn't want to believe any of this...to wake up and realize it was all a bad nightmare...it wasn't going to happen.

The fire was running on embers right about now but it was plenty warm under a blanket he had smuggled out of the orphanage before this disaster had taken place. He wanted to cry, to weep the loss of his friends and Sister Nena, but crying wasn't going to make it any better. If anything, it might attract the attention of...

***SNAP***

If 46 wasn't completely awake, he was now as he scrambled to the viewing hole on the small wooden door. He cautiously opened it and scanned the dark forest around him for any sign of the monster. The forest was thankful lit by moonlight as it reflected off the snow and ice.

His heart thundered in his chest as his eye desperately tried to locate the source of the sound that had woken in up. 46 looked from left to right until his eyes thankfully came upon a raccoon stepping on a pile of twigs on its nightly foraging run. He breathed a sigh of relief as it made the same snapping sound whenever it stepped on a twig.

He watched it scurry around for a couple of minutes before it disappeared into the more darker spots of the forest.

He closed the view-port and returned to straightening out his hollow. He didn't know if he could stay here or remain hidden for as long as possible, that thing could still be out there.

46 set about packing small supplies into his back pack and tightening his shoes, he didn't want to be caught unprepared if they situation called for him to run. He made sure he had all of his dry clothes on before turning to look at his hollow. Did he even have a plan? For all he knew he was only heading deeper into the forest, where certain death awaited him. Perhaps he could wait it out until the Emperor's forces returned to drive out the Chaos?

He knew he couldn't remain in the hollow the entire time so he decided he would go out exploring his surroundings, perhaps find an even warmer place to settle down and periodically return to both places. Yes, that's what he'd do.

Suddenly, there was a terrifying screech of a forest animal in the darkness, 46 cringed in horror as he heard the sound of flesh coming apart, it had been the same sound when he had watched his friends die. He gulped.

So much for that plan.

He grabbed his backpack and took a peak out of the viewport.

And there she was.

The daemonette.

The epitome of his nightmares.

The monster, the monster he had watched order around the smaller ones to kill his friends.

She took the form of an almost completely nude, but shockingly beautiful woman with many symbols etched across her body. Despite this, she had long flowing black hair that covered her breasts and a piece of cloth one could almost call clothing across her waist. She was unlike the others in that she seemed more human but he knew just by looking at the Chaotic symbols embedded on her that she was a daemonette.

One might ask how an eleven year old boy knew so much about Chaos...well, one could also ask how they might be able to keep a restless young boy from using the unused tunnels to the outside of the compound...ones that led to the library, forest, etc.

His eyes widened in terror as she walked on the edge of the darkness in an arc around the hollow, about thirty yards away, shifting between the trees. The raccoon's blood dripping from her mouth.

He was about to step backward to the back exit when her eyes suddenly snapped towards him.

She smiled.

She knew he was there.

46 needed no more provocation, he grabbed his backpack and crawled under a wooded overhang to get to the back of the hollow. He kicked out the wooden back door and crawled out, instantly getting on his feet to leap across a small stream to get to the other side.

He used all of his strength to climb up the slope on the other side and once he reached the top, Sister Nena's voice rang in his head.

_FASTER! RUN FASTER!_

He made the mistake of looking backward as he ran.

The beautiful...thing...had a hand against the hollow, her face now void of the raccoon's blood. She placed a hand on the tree and blew him a kiss. 46 could have died of terror right then and there if he had been weaker.

He gritted his teeth in fear and kept running through the fortunately shallow snow. Like he had earlier, he ducked beneath logs, sprinted, and crossed streams as fast as he could.

But it was no use, in only about ten minutes, he stopped with exhaustion and bent over to catch his breath. That was when she started to speak.

_**"Why do you run my love? There's no need to be afraid..."**_

The words may sound promising, but 46 knew that the moment you let Chaos into your mind, it might never come out. Well, at least with a melta gun it might. 46 stumbled but kept running.

_**"I can give you what you've always wanted...a family...a mother...all you have to do is accept me..."**_ her voice echoed through the forest.

That sealed the deal, she wanted his very soul, and 46 was in no way going to give it to her. To accept Chaos was to turn your back on the Emperor, and to turn your back on the Emperor, was the ultimate betrayal of humanity.

He kept running, but he couldn't help but hear her voice becoming more clear, her footsteps through the snow becoming louder as she seemed to _walk _the same distance he was running. He still didn't look back because if he did, she would no doubt have him in her grasp.

The moonlight fortunately led the way through the forest even as she continued to call to him, _**"You need not run young one...there's always a place for new converts...you will have everything you ever dreamed of...**__**"**_

The only thing 46 ever dreamed of was becoming a Space Marine, but that was out of the question now.

He began to hear the loud noises in the distance and the sound of weapons he'd never heard of, they sounded sleeker, deadlier, faster than any weapon he'd seen in the imperial archives, as if they were cutting open the air with a sleek knife. His eyes squinted as he saw flashes of white light accompany the snapping noises in the distance.

_What is that?_ He thought, but the daemonette answered him, _**"Come my love...why do continue to run? There's nothing to be afraid of..."**_

Oh yes there was.

There was no where else he could go, 46 ran straight in the direction of the white flashes, but as he got closer, he figured out they were not just some natural phenomenon. It was a battle.

He screamed in terror as the bark of a small tree next to him was shredded by trails of white light that seemed to cut it rather than blast it apart. Another white explosion sounded near him and blew a deep crater in the snow not ten yards away from him. The sound of the battle drowned out his terrified shrieks as he sank to his knees and covered his ears.

He opened his eyes and low and behold the daemonette was not twenty yards away from him.

Risk dying in the crossfire or submit to Chaos? 46 chose the former. He scrambled to his feet and rushed away from the tree and not a couple seconds later it too was shredded by the streaking white fire.

When the light of a flare cleared, he saw what was going on.

Daemonettes were fighting things...no...humans?...no...white armored figures, slender, sleek, deadly white figures with green helms and glowing red eyes. Some of them were complete in their green armor while others were trimmed in it. They were the source of the shrieking white fire as it spewed from their weapons. The figures either fired from a distance or in some cases, fought hand to hand with the daemons. The ones that fought wore screaming masks with grills where their mouths should be and the back of their helms sported long crimson hair.

But 46 was only concerned about the daemonette following him, if he was eviscerated during the firefight, so be it. The chances of him surviving were just about reaching zip at this point.

He ran once more and began perhaps the stupidest maneuver he'd ever done in his short decade of life.

The battlefield was a lightly wooded area with a couple small clearings. Most of the white bone armored figures where hiding behind small slopes and firing at the daemonettes and cultists as they emerged from the darkness to the west while the other, more sleek combatants weaved a deadly battle in hand to hand combat with the daemons.

46 did his best to remain small through the flashes and battle screams as he crawled across the snow away from the daemonette. He did his best to remain away from the flashes of light from the muzzles of guns and explosions while inching closer to the darker parts of the forest which unfortunately, mean't inching towards the daemons.

Sometimes he'd get up from his crawl and dart to a tree only to leave it and have it be shredded not a moment later. He weaved his way through dips in the snow, using the moonlight to guide him through unhindered paths. Suddenly, he slipped on a patch of ice and landed on his behind and the moment he opened his eyes he gasped in fear.

He saw one of the bone armored figures with a flowed red mane coming out of the corner of his right eye. The figure leaped over the small snow slope and twirled in the air horizontally so that it practically flew over him.

It looked at him with glowing red eyes and its screaming grill. But if it was surprised, it did not show it as it landed perfectly and engaged a cultist. 46 wasted no more time in getting up and continuing to run across the base of the slope but only a moment later, pain seared across his leg and he cried out out as his left leg gave out from under him.

He looked down and was horrified to see a something a literally cut through his pants like a knife, shredding the fabric and creating a long cut across his thigh, it looked like whatever had hit him had just grazed him, but it still hurt uncontrollably. He gritted his teeth and wailed.

He was about to get up when suddenly he stopped, unable to move as an earsplitting scream tore through the air.

The only thing he could do was grit his teeth as pain wracked his head and he felt a warm substance leaking from both his ears. It was terrible, he felt like his head was going to just explode. He was in pain, so much pain for an eleven year old boy and soon, it became too much.

He closed his eyes and returned the wail with a scream of his own.

What happened next, shocked everyone and everything.

46 immediately felt relief from the pains in his leg and head and he opened his eyes to see a sparkling blue sphere of energy moving away from him, continuously getting larger as it knocked the white warriors and daemons off their feet.

But he was no longer in pain, so he got up and ran. His left leg was still very heavy and he was forced to limp away into the darkness which was fortunately only a couple of feet away.

He did not look back.

* * *

46 was about to give out.

He'd been limping for a while now and he had looked back a couple of times to see blood trailing in the snow, there was no energy left in him to try and cover it up as it leaked from his ears and left leg.

He was now in a similarly heavily wooded area with light snow around him with no end in sight. This is where he was going to die. The boy simply known as 46 was going to die here alone and cold just as he'd been born.

The boy whimpered and collapsed. He wanted Sister Nena, he wanted to see her one last time. He wanted to see Helena and tell her he was sorry for not going with her, he wanted to tell her he liked her. But why did all this matter now? Where would 46 go when he died? Would he be with the Emperor in paradise or would he fade into oblivion and cease to exist as an entity of the galaxy?

He began to dig a small hole in the snow to place himself in, at least he wouldn't die too cold. When he settled himself in, he began to breath shallower and watched out of the corner of his eye as the snowflakes slowly dropped from the sky.

And then, there she was.

The daemonette.

She hadn't forgotten about him even though she'd lost him in the firefight.

46 trembled and cried miserably, knowing his fate was sealed, there'd be no one to comfort him as this daemon ripped his throat out like it had the raccoon's. He tightened himself in a ball and tried to lower himself into the hole, but she'd already seen him.

_**"You poor child...you don't need to resist me...you've proven yourself capable of using the warp to your advantage...don't you see the amount of gifts you can obtain."**_

46 only whimpered and shut his eyes as the snow began to turn red with his blood.

The daemonette made soft cooing and motherly sounds as she knelt next to his hole and gingerly brushed his stubby black hair, _**"The Prince can help you regain what you lost young one...you don't have to run...She can help you have everything you've ever wanted."**_

She smiled as 46 tightened harder into a ball and cried some more, she was about to reach to pick him up but frowned when she felt a presence in the warp directly ahead of her.

46 didn't notice because the cold snow had just about shut down his senses, he could no longer smell nor would he open his eyes. He could barely hear except for a few muffled noises and garbled words from the daemonette. All he wanted was to pass into the afterlife, to fade away and leave this cruel world behind. Perhaps one day, he might see Helena again.

He began to hear sounds that sounded like a singing blade, similar to the weapons the bone white figures had fired. The unmistakable sound of it cutting through flesh and then finally, and explosion that rocked his little body inside his hole.

And then, there was nothing.

Was he dead? He hoped to the Emperor that he was, but he still felt the cold snow and his coat around his upper body, but strangely, he began to hear more. The sound of something walking towards him from behind him was unmistakable. Once again, he curled up into a ball and whimpered.

The footsteps stopped when they were at their loudest, not a couple feet away from him.

Nothing happened after a couple of minutes and 46 knew that he most likely dead by now, were the footsteps those of the Emperor? Welcoming him to paradise? But it was still cold.

He felt fingers wrap around his arm and leg closest to the snow and lift him up and out of the hole, whoever was holding him was holding him like a mother and her newborn. 46 secretly smiled but he did not open his eyes, the Emperor was carrying him to his new life. He had done it, he had past peacefully in that forsaken hole in the ground.

He felt his carrier begin to walk as 46 loosened up a bit, he sneaked open an eye to get his first glimpse of the Emperor.

He couldn't have been more wrong.


	2. The Boy Named Eldarion

**A/N: Many thanks to those that reviewed the first chapter and encouraged me to keep it up, I didn't expect alot of support in the beginning but you guys are awesome. Now, like I said, the story will deviate from the original but don't worry, I have the original as well as the author's notes on the story saved, so don't think for a second this is going to sink like a rock.**

**Because it won't.**

**Now, enjoy chapter 2.**

* * *

**Flashback**

**Escape from Ophelia III**

_46 gritted his teeth and wiped away tears as the door to the main hall shut and he heard multiple barricades and locks being put up against it from the other side of the massive door. He looked behind him and saw all of the frightened children looking at him, most crying, the others with looks of horror on their faces._

_The young boy shook his head and pointed to the far corridor, weaving his way through his many fellow orphans._

_"This way! I'll lead you to the underground catacombs."_

_46 had just reached the front of the pack when a larger boy shoved his way past 46 and pushed him to the ground._

_"Who says you're in charge? I'm bigger!" yelled 23._

_No orphan liked 23, he was the equivalent of a vain, cruel, and arrogant boy that happened to have the right genes to make him bigger than his fellow youngsters. He picked on everyone, showed no mercy, and somehow believed he was destined to be a Space Marine._

_46 got up and brushed himself off, "Fine, see who follows you." he sneered._

_23 smirked and turned to the group and said, "Follow me if you want to save your sorry arses!" he said, running down an opposite hallway to the west, but no one followed him, to no one's surprise._

_46 shook his head and pointed down the main corridor. He immediately saw the fair face of the golden haired 81, otherwise known as Helena, who had given herself a name long ago. 46 walked up to her and placed his hands on her shoulders._

_"Please lead the group to the next main hall."_

_Helena squeaked, "What are you going to do? Please don't leave us 46."_

_46 smiled and said, "I'm not, I need to talk with 23."_

_Helena blinked through her tear stricken face and nodded and waved the massive group of children through the hall. 46 waited until the last child passed him and he ran down the same hall, where 23 was waiting._

_"So you're the only one? Never expected a puny piece of shit like yourself to actually be strong enough to follow me." said 23 with a sinister smile._

_"I didn't come here to follow you. I'm offering you the chance to come with us and actually live." 46 replied sharply._

_"So assured are you that you're going to survive? You and your little band of tiny tots aren't going anywhere." 23 laughed and turned his back on 46 for the final time, running down the hallway._

_46 growled and he too turned his back, intent on getting back to the group Sister Nena had entrusted him with. He turned around to throw one last taunt at 23 and realized he was doing the same._

_Suddenly, there was the sound of things being knocked over and explosions that rocked the hallway, causing both boys to stumble. Something burst out of the wall directly to the side of 23 and before the boy could scream-snatched him up and ripped him apart-limb from limb._

_46 wanted to scream in horror but all he did was let his mouth drop open and let his eyes widen as the pink daemonette was hidden behind a cloud of debris and dust as she feasted on 23._

_It was all the provocation 46 needed to turn tail and run as fast as his legs could carry him. He took a sharp left once he reached the main hallway and caught up with the group in no time._

_Helena burst out of the back and held 46 as he stumbled in exhaustion, trying to regain his breath._

_"What happened? Where's 23?" she asked warily._

_"They're coming...They're coming." 46 whispered as Helena's eyes grew wide._

_46 lifted himself up and gently pushed Helena aside, saying, "We have to go...NOW!" he said as he once again took his place at the front of the pack. The pack was full of frightened and crying children that could barely keep up with him and 46 had to restrain himself from joining them. They took multiple hallways and multiple turns throughout the orphanage, sometimes catching the sights of Sisters of Battle rushing to step the Chaos horde, but they paid no attention to the children._

_Soon, they came to a massive door that led to the orphanage's warehouse, where it kept supplies among other things. No child had ever seen the inside, as it was strictly forbidden and off limits._

_All children but 46 that is._

_"We can't go in there! No one knows how to open it!" cried Helena but 46 put a finger to her lips and said, "Trust me, I know what I'm doing."_

_Helena nodded and stepped back as 46 walked up to the door and craned his head back as he scanned the massive door. There was the sound of rumblings and explosions a distance away, causing some children to glance worriedly back and forth._

_46 closed his eyes and breathed the words he'd spied many sisters uttering to enter the warehouse._

_"Let all the children know that the Emperor welcomes them with open arms."_

_The young boy smiled as he saw the mechanical workings of the door shift and move, creating a shocking display of machinery as locks unhinged and barriers were brought up. Soon, the doors opened inward to reveal perhaps the biggest room any child had ever seen._

_46 waved the children through and soon the massive door closed behind the children, satisfying many who now knew they were safe._

_The young boy breathed a sigh of relief as he took a look around the gigantic warehouse, the only signs that it had a ceiling were the periodic small suns that dotted the darkness above them, lighting the alley ways periodically. The warehouse was stacked almost to the ceilings with supply crates among other things, with many alleys leading to other places._

_46 waved the group to follow him, "Follow me, we're getting out of here." he said._

_As he turned, he smiled as he listened to some children mutter words of praise and prayers, and he heard his own number in many of them. He shook his head as he scanned the crates, trying to suppress the feeling that he deserved the praise._

_"No soldier need be honored for doing what is asked of him..." a voice rang in his head suddenly, a quote from a manuscript he had read during his escapades to Talicor's forbidden section of its library. Its security no more than simple addition for the resourceful boy._

_46 carefully led the way, searching for the opening to the underground catacombs._

_Helena spoke up, "What are we looking for 46?"_

_"An entrance to tunnels that I found one time I was in here. They lead..."_

_"You've been in here before?" she asked, shocked._

_46 shook his head, "No is not the time to be asking such questions, lets just get to that dropship."_

_Helena nodded and prodded some of the smaller children forward._

_They had been walking for a couple minutes and some children were obviously getting very tired, some dropped and didn't get up even though 46 tried his best to get them going again. There was nothing more he could do for them, by the time they reached a crate on the west side of an abandoned alley way with a dusty tarp flung over it, the group had come down to half its original strength._

_46 summoned all of his strength to grab the tarp and fling it to the ground. The crate was actually missing one of its outer sides-revealing a dark hole in its bottom. Some children's eyes grew wide and they shied away from the ominous darkness._

_"There's no need to fear, there are handles to drop down to the tunnels, you'll be al..." before 46 could finish, his blood ran cold and his hands flew to his head as he was suddenly bombarded by a vision._

_Far down the alleyways, the massive door that had kept the warehouse secret from the orphans was suddenly burst open effortlessly by a nearly naked woman with her hand outstretched, her body was tan like 46's and covered with Chaotic symbols and phrases, her long black hair covered her breasts and a thin piece of cloth wrapped around her waist and thighs._

_From behind her, pink daemonettes crawled up the walls and ran into the warehouse with ravenous intent. The naked woman looked around at her fellow daemonettes for a moment before slowly turning straight forward, as if she was looking right at 46. She raised her finger and pointed directly at him while smiling._

**"I SEE YOU..." **

_"46!" cried Helena as she shook the young boy out of his trance. 46's vision cleared and he gently pushed Helena aside, his eyes scanning the many crates and supply chambers, frantically searching for any sign of the Great Enemy._

_"46 please tell me! What's wrong?" Helena murmured as she clung to him._

_46 whipped around and and held Helena's face, both of them staring into each other's eyes as he said, "We must move, they have entered the warehouse." He turned to the children and waved them through, "Go! Go! Go!" he said as they frighteningly entered the dark hole, climbing downwards._

_Suddenly, 46 was chilled by the wails and screams of the children who were too tired to move and the daemonic sounds of the daemonettes as they either disappeared with the children in arms or tore them to pieces._

_He gritted his teeth and shut his eyes as another vision came into place._

_The naked woman was directing her sister daemonettes to hidden children as if she could see right through the tarps and crates hiding some of them. They were dragged screaming in front of the woman and she either smiled or frowned when they reached her._

_If she smiled, they took the children back towards the entrance of the warehouse, were more screaming was heard._

_If she frowned, they were butchered right then and there._

_She once again looked directly at 46, raising a single finger and motioned it towards 46 and back towards her, as if beckoning to him to come to her._

_"46! Come on!" said 39, a small child as he stood at the top of the ladder. 46 stalled for a moment, trying to shake himself free of this horrible visions before he grabbed the tarp and flung it over the crate behind him, hoping that it might stall the daemonettes somehow._

_He climbed down the handlebars and when he reached the bottom, he saw the catacombs of an ancient temple to the Emperor illuminated by permanent lamps. He pushed his way through the crowd and once again took his place at the front, he turned around and faced the children he'd known his entire life._

_"These catacombs and tunnels were once part of an ancient temple dedicated to the Emperor, allow him to guide you to the upper levels." he said._

_"Where do they lead?" asked Helena._

_"They lead to a topside ventilation shaft in the courtyard, the dropship is there according to Sister Nena." he immediately regretted saying her name._

_At the mention of the sister that had been basically a mother to all of them, many broke down in tears, some called for their real parents, others just simply broke down. 46 and Helena tried to get them to calm down but it was of little use._

_46 blinked for a moment and sighed before he picked a rusting piece of a crowbar lying on the ground and as hard as he could-struck it against the walls, creating a very loud and reverberating sound. The children flung their hands to their ears in an attempt to ease the sound away and they looked up at 46._

_46 spoke a single phrase that he knew would get their attention._

_"Come with me if you want to live." and turned around and began walking through the tunnels. He smirked as he heard the light footsteps of the children began to follow him. He knew this corridors like the back of his hand, and soon, he began to hear the faint rumblings of explosions and bolter fire._

_"Where is that coming from?" asked 39, looking up at the ceiling as dust began to shake from it._

_"Where we need to go." said 46, taking a sharp left._

_The children soon began to hear the sounds of the battle more clear and the tears returned to their eyes. 46 could help but do the same as his heart thundered in his chest and he gulped his bile as he came to the dead end which sported a ladder up to the courtyard._

_"This shaft hasn't been bothered with since I first arrived here, no one will suspect us of using it. He herded the children up the ladder, making sure he, Helena, or someone older was helping the smaller ones._

_He was the last one to go and he was about to start climbing when he turned back and saw her._

_The naked woman._

_The daemonette._

_She was right there._

_At the end of the corridor less than a hundred yards away._

_46, filled with fear and concern for his friends, frantically rushed up the ladder. When he reached the top, he wasted no time in screaming, "GO! We have to go!"._

_The ventilation shaft was placed on the ground right next to the outer walls of the orphanage. The courtyard surrounded the octagon shaped orphanage with 12 feet tall walls and barbed wire. In the distance directly north, 46 saw the familiar shape of an large Imperial Guard troop Valkyrie prepping for lift-off. The familiar red streaks of lasgun fire firing from its open compartments._

_The group of children ran as hard as they could along the walls of the building, trying to stay out of the way as Guardsmen and Sisters fired on cultists, daemonettes, and now...the most terrifying of all...fallen Space Marines._

_Most had horns that curled atop their helmets, chaotic symbols littered their dark pink armor as they screamed and roared their praise to whatever God they belonged to. 46 saw one of them wield the biggest bolter he'd ever seen and the fallen one used it to mow through many sisters, scattering their bodies across the courtyard._

_The Sisters in turn responded with flames that looked like they belonged in firestorms. The immolaters licked at the armor of the fallen ones and melted right through. The lucky heretics were incinerated instantly while the space marines writhed in agony as they were cooked inside their armor._

_Many children were unfortunately caught in the cross fire and soon the group was down to less than 20. The bodies of 46's friends littered the courtyard. He wanted to scream out his terror and fear but knew that it would not help him whatsoever._

_Suddenly, he heard the concrete burst apart above him and with no time to judge where it was, pulled Helena with him towards the middle of the courtyard. They both screamed as the battle raged around them and fire and bullets flew over their heads. They had separated themselves from the main group but at least they were out of the way of being crushed by falling debris._

_46 did the only thing he could do-he guided Helena towards the opposite walls that surrounded the orphanage and when they reached them, they hugged those walls and ran towards the Valkyrie, now only 40 yards away._

_Then, something flew over their heads and burst apart the wall like it was nothing, creating a gigantic hole that led out to the snow covered Gargantua forest to the east. Helena was on the other side of the debris and she heard 46 say, "Go! I'll be right behind you!" _

_Helena knew there was no effort left in her to argue with 46 so she turned her back and ran as fast her legs could carry her._

_46 gritted his teeth as he ducked and covered his head to avoid the battle which almost seemed like it was less than a couple inches in front of him and happening only there. He realized that he couldn't move unless he wanted to get his head taken off as bolter fire raged everywhere. He watched as Helena leaped into the arms of a Guardsmen and the rest of the children board as well._

_When he saw an opening, he climbed atop the rubble that was created by the explosion in the outer wall and looked to the west, towards where he had emerged from the catacombs._

_There she was again._

_Standing still._

_Less than 15 yards away._

_Yet, she wasn't looking at him, she was looking at the Valkyrie._

_46 turned and in horror saw that the Valkyrie was still loading anyone who wished to escape._

_He turned back and saw her begin to raise her hand to point at the Valkyrie, to direct her sisters towards his friends._

_Thinking quickly, he grabbed a rock that fit in his hand and waited a second to aim before throwing it at the naked woman. The rock arced across the sky and struck the daemonette in the side of the head._

_She blinked for a moment before slowly turning to 46._

_She smiled and turned to take a step toward him._

_That was all 46 needed to disregard any hope of boarding the Valkyrie. He looked one last time to see Helena screaming at him to run to her as the Valkyrie's gear lifted off the ground._

_So he wasn't escaping._

_Well this sucks...he thought._

_He thought about Helena and the rest of his friends, whom he'd never see again. He wished he could have told Helena that he was in love with her, that he liked her more than a friend, but he shook his head, now was not the time for such thoughts._

_Knowing that the only place to go was to his hollow in the Gargantua Forest, he turned and leaped out of the wall and ran towards the forest. _

_The Valkyrie passed overhead and up into the air._

_46 smiled and said to himself, "At least you're safe." before he entered the forest._

* * *

**Present Day**

**14 years later...Segmentum Tempestus...Craftworld Biel-Tan**

"Eldarion..."

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...

...

...

...

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"Eldarion..."

Eldarion was suddenly awoken by the sound of his name coming from his mother's mouth. His mother never yelled, nor would she ever think about raising her voice at her only son, but when she called his name, it was almost like the reaper calling for him. He sat up and rubbed his eyes and yawned, another morning, another day he would simply put with everything and anything thrown against him.

He looked backward and saw the sunlight from the artificial sun gleaming through the blinds. Stretching, he pulled the covers off of himself and sat on the edge of the bed, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

"Eldarion?" his mother asked from outside the doorway.

"Yes Mother?" he replied, trying not to sound too irritated at being woken up early on a normal day.

"Your food is ready." she said, and Eldarion heard the light footsteps of his mother become softer as she moved to the dining room down the hallway. Eldarion chuckled and shook his head as he got up and put on his morning sweats and tunic before stretching one last time. He then moved to the main area in their small apartment where she had set up two trays of food grains at their table.

His mother had crimson hair with green highlights that matched her morning attire perfectly. The Eldar were keen on keeping themselves as random as they were beautiful, Eldarion believed his mother was one of the most beautiful he'd ever seen.

He laid his palm on his mother's in their usual morning greeting and moved to help her arrange the table. At 6'1, he was a little taller than his mother and had a bit more muscle but despite the circumstances that surrounded them, he treated her with the utmost respect and love, and it had taken Lilien a while to get used to that from her only child. It was not uncommon for single Eldar parents to have difficulties raising children on their own.

That was the problem. Lilien was not Eldarion's birth mother, and neither was Eldarion of the Eldar race.

He was human.

When they sat down, Lilien watched her adopted son dig his fingers into the grains and say his thanks as he continued to eat. Eldarion had just licked his fingers when he noticed his mother hadn't even touched her tray.

"Is something wrong?"

"No." she replied vehemently.

Eldarion was taken aback by her reply and sank into his chair. It didn't matter if he was bigger and stronger than his mother, he lived under her roof and therefore he was bound by her rules.

Lilien immediately regretted her actions and spoke, "I'm sorry Eldarion, its just...after what you told me yesterday..."

The human looked up at his adopted mother and said, "Do you believe taking me in was a mistake?"

The bonesinger looked at her son with a painful expression and replied, "No...no of course not...I'm sorry if I implied anything my son but you must realize, being the mother to a human aboard the most zealous of all Eldar Craftworld's has its drawbacks."

Eldarion looked down at his food, this wasn't the first time he'd had this conversation with Lilien and it pained him equally to know his mother suffered almost more humiliation at the hands of her own people for caring for a human.

He timidly dipped his finger into the grains and continued eating, delighted to see that Lilien had now begun to eat as well.

Yesterday, the usual group of Biel-tan guardians and Aspect Warrior initiates had called Lilien a string of Eldar names that Eldarion could only assume were insults. The worst part about it was that Eldarion had heard it from them while Lilien had been in her workshop. They had cornered him in an alleyway and beaten him as usual before letting loose their hatred and racial superiority through their words.

Eldarion had proceeded to Lilien's workshop, where he had been forced by her to tell her what happened.

Again, it was not the first time it had happened.

But Eldarion was eager to change the subject, despite the fact that these occurrences were regular. He asked his mother about the light corvette that she and her fellow bonesingers were crafting from the wraithbone.

Lilien smiled and replied, "Wraithbone responds as much to our music just as an artist's crystal lattice to his or her touch. It must be perfect to ensure the best possible outcome. Why do you ask?"

Eldarion replied, "To be able to craft something from music alone is quite possibly the most beautiful thing I've ever seen or heard." he blinked and smiled, "Besides my mother of course."

Lilien chuckled lightly into her palm, "I appreciate your praise."

Until they finished their morning meals, mother and son spoke of days when they weren't being tormented by Biel-tan's native population. Lilien spoke of times before the Fall, when some of her ancestors were actually apart of the Eldar that _hadn't _tried to exercise all their emotions and bring about their own downfall.

Eldarion spoke of the times when he would use his old orphanage's underground tunnels to go to the libraries and sneak supplies to his hidden hollow in the nearby forest. Lilien smiled, her son's resourcefulness and ability to keep himself hidden had come in handy plenty of times in his years on Biel-Tan.

Resourcefulness to escape a certain group of Eldar that had been the bane of his existence ever since the Craftworld first laid eyes upon the young human.

Kaylan was a guardian, and he reminded Eldarion of his old childhood nemesis...23.

Jessendra was Kaylan's older sister by only a couple of passses and a Howling Banshee ever since Eldarion had arrived on Biel-tan, and she preferred verbal abuse.

Vissorian, Telemacharin, Rassanin, Vehennil, Athenasin, and Belhalan were all either guardians or Aspect Warrior novices that were apart of the usual group that tormented Eldarion every chance they found him, physically and psychologically.

No one held them back, no farseer or exarch, nor outcast or normal citizen ever intervened on Eldarion's behalf. Once he stepped out of his mother's apartment each day, he was on his own. Every once in a while the group would back off when Farseer Elohiem happened to pass by on his walks, but even those were rare.

Farseer Elohiem.

The name struck a mixture of anger, confusion, and straight mysteriousness into Eldarion's heart. Today was another day where he was supposed to meet the farseer in the Dome of the Seers, it was one of the few places that Eldar simply ignored him rather then give him sinister looks and spit insults at him.

Eldarion returned to his room and donned a brown coat that had been provided to him by Elohiem to conceal himself. Every time he came back from exploring Biel-tan or simply escaping his tormentors, Lilien would use an intricate want to change the color and appearance of the robe, so that no Eldar would recognize him twice. Eldarion himself had become quite good at navigating in the nocturnal cycles, but it was in broad daylight that he had problems.

When he had finished dressing himself, Lilien came into his room and said, "You look like an outcast more than anything."

"Let's hope it'll help me survive another day." he replied as he slipped on outer garments to conceal his tan skin.

He was about to open the front door when he turned around to face his mother, whose head was drooped in an act of worry. Eldarion leaned forward and kissed her forehead, bringing her some relief, "Fear not mother, you know that the group has been summoned in the Swordwind, the chance of me encountering trouble is relatively slim."

"It is the small chance that you will that worries me." she said and looked up at him and repeated the words she told him everyday he stepped out of the apartment, "Be safe Eldarion."

The young human nodded and left quickly, trying his best not to gain the attention of the many Eldar that walked around the halls and floors. He took a gravity lift down to the main floor and soon emerged in the streets below. He was lucky to have a face mask that was given to him by a ranger that had taken pity on him a couple years ago, otherwise he'd never would have been able to emerge in the daylight.

The Craftworld's streets were somewhat similar to human's but the contrast in cleanliness and order was immense. No vehicles traveled the ground, all used the sky above them, which was filled with personal carriages or skyrunners.

Eldarion looked up, sighed, and began his trek to the Dome of the Seers.

* * *

**Setting aside the total improbability of these events, combined with the level of confusion it might bring you, all I say is that you watch and learn from the next chapter, which will explain things better.**


	3. The Answers Lay With Asuryan

**A/N: Each chapter will have a flash back explaining the back story until I announce that the flashbacks have ended. If you have any questions about this story, feel free to PM me or ask the new forum on the forums page.**

**Action won't happen before another couple chapters as I still explain the back story, so bare with me.**

* * *

**Flashback  
**

**Assault on Ophelia III**

_The curiosity of the humans would be their undoing, and it was because of their curiosity that a small warhost from Craftworld Biel-tan would be dispatched to deal with the inevitability of the opening of a warp portal before it consumed the whole planet the humans called Ophelia III. It was apparently close to the headquarters for their "Sisters of Battle" the women who seemed to bathe in fire and enjoyed burning those that betrayed their corpse-Emperor._

_All the easier for a deranged human female to succumb to the whispers of daemons and begin the rituals needed to open a portal to the warp. No one would have ever suspected the threat to come from so near._

_But this...was only part of the problem for Farseer Elohiem._

_Lately, his meditations had been plagued by something entirely new. As a farseer he had grown accustomed to understanding unnatural events thrown at him but it was on the eve before the warhost was to be dispatched, that his dreams culminated._

_As soon as he closed his eyes in mediation in his apartment, the dream began..._

_He opened his eyes and looked around, he wasn't surprised by his surroundings. The environment around him was the vacuum between planets, stars, and other works of nature-void space. He looked down at his feet, somehow he was standing, but by then he was beginning to neglect all questions of how this was all possible._

_There were no planets around, just endless dots of bright stars that blanketed the void around him every so often._

_"**Welcome child.**" boomed a voice from all around him._

_Elohiem's eyes darted around for the source of the voice, but he could not find anything._

_"Who is there?" he asked aloud, his eyes still searching._

_"**Your questions can wait kin...for now...you will**** listen.**" the deep voice replied. Elohiem didn't recognize the voice at all, but he narrowed his eyes at the response. He suddenly became aware of faint rays of light coming over his shoulders and he whipped around but shielded his eyes and gritted his teeth as soon as he did._

_When his eyes were able to withstand the tremendous power of the light, he let down his arm and stared at the source. He could vaguely make out a robed figure almost identical to him within the light, but any other detail was completely obscured._

_"**For too long...our people survive on nothing but myths...prophecies with no evidence...legends but no heroes...What do ****you**_**_ think?_**_" the light figure asked him._

_Elohiem was still trying to figure just who he was talking to.  
_

_"Prophecies that will come true one day." he said._

_"**Is that what my kin believe? That they simply have to wait hundreds if not centuries before the prophecies come true? Come now...even you must acknowledge that you have been fooled.**"_

_"Fooled?" Elohiem asked, bewildered._

_The figure began to walk in a circle around Elohiem, "**Legends to fill children with false hope every night before they sleep...All of** **them...**" it sighed._

_"You have as much proof or evidence as I do, the future is as clouded as it is uncertain. Who are you to ask such things?" Elohiem shot back._

_The figure stopped and turned to Elohiem, "**The time has come...for the one true future to begin to unravel. The future of this universe is at stake, and you...Farseer Elohiem...will hold him in your arms.**"_

_"Him?" asked Elohiem._

_The figure nodded and raised an arm with a clenched fist, "**Behold the future, and**** believe**_**.**"

_Elohiem looked at the figure and then at the clenched fist before he took a step closer and examined the fist of light. The being slowly unraveled its fingers and Elohiem's eyes widened at what he saw. _

_In the palm of the light being was a tiny figure as small as a child's Isha doll, curled up in fetal position. He was surprised that he could actually see it moving and whimpering with tiny cries of pain and sadness. With his sharp eyes, he noticed it was bleeding onto the light being, the red fluid running over the being's hand before it spilled over into the void of space. Its clothes looked tattered and torn, some sort of coat enveloped it and leggings drenched with blood._

_That's when he saw its ears-rounded, not pointed like and Eldar's._

_A human._

_Elohiem took a step back, "What is this madness?" he demanded._

_The being did not move but spoke, "**He is the future that our people can finally believe in. If you are to let your racial thoughts override your judgement, then he will pass into the oblivion and our people will never know true peace.**"_

_The figure nodded and boomed in a very loud voice, "_**___The Grey shall purge. ____The Black shall corrupt. ____The Red shall consume. ____One shall rise from ranks of the common. ____To lead us all to the light. ____To defeat the Leviathan, the Wrath of the Old. ____To purge the Dark and destroy the it. ____To go toward the future and not to the_ past.**_"_

_The being looked down at its palm at the tiny representation of the human before he curled his fingers up once more, "**You will hold his life in your arms Elohiem, and when the time comes, you must choose...the past...one of hatred, arrogance, xenophobia...or the future...to peace, happiness, and the light.**"_

_The figure waved his hand in front of Elohiem, "**The moment of prophecy...is at hand. A new king is waiting to be found Elohiem, find him, and await the day when he shall seek me out once more.**"_

_Elohiem tried to speak but found he couldn't, his mouth wasn't moving and he couldn't summon the strength to say anything, all he could do was listen as the being of light began to rise above him._

_"**This is my legacy...to you.**"_

_Elohiem felt himself being tugged backward and he looked back to see the void of space being distorted and forced into a tiny hole, he tried to get a foothold but found he was as weightless as a feather and twirled helplessly towards the void hole._

_"**Farewell.**"_

_The farseer was jolted from his dream just as there was a knock on his apartment door. He looked down at the mat that his knees were knelt on and sighed, he had little idea of what to make of what he had just seen._

_The door opened and a young warlock appeared, dressed in her battle robes and armor, "Noble farseer, the warhost is departing soon, Farseer Rathanir requests your presence on the wraithship as soon as possible." she nodded before leaving._

_Elohiem turned back to looking at his meditation mat and thought about what the being of light had told him..._

___The Grey shall purge_

___The Black shall corrupt_

___The Red shall consume_

___One shall rise from ranks of the common_

___To lead us all to the light_

___To defeat the Leviathan, the Wrath of the Old_

___To purge the Dark and destroy the it_

___To go toward the future and not to the past..._

___Not a couple cycles later, farseer Elohiem swung his witchblade to cleave through a daemonette, a servant of the Great Enemy on the human world of Ophelia III. A group of seer and warlocks had already been dispatched to deal with the human cultist, who as acting as the conduit by which the warp portal was staying open. The farseer and his band of howling banshees, dire avengers, and striking scorpions had landed in Ophelia III"s massive continental forest, where many were escaping into._

___He had thought little of the words the being of light had told them and dismissed them as a useless thread of the future. It was not the first time that he had done so, dismissing threads could mean the difference between life and death-some of them, while being possible futures, could lead either way._

___His warband was spread out over a short length in the forest that was closest to the nearest human settlement, even six or seven hours since the warp portal opened, more forces of Chaos had inevitably begun to pour through the tear in time and space. It was exactly what the seer council of Biel-tan had been dreading._

___Damn the humans and their curiosity...Elohiem thought as he plunged the blade through the skull of yet another daemonette, splattering blood over his robes and ghost helm. He stood atop a small snowy slope that was adjacent to the human settlement to the west, and knew he had to hold this position until the seer council could deal with the cultist inside the human settlement. The humans themselves were already evacuating the doomed continent._

___This Swordwind had to succeed in the next couple of hours, for if they didn't, they would be putting themselves dangerously at risk with inevitable human reinforcements, and the Eldar would be trapped._

___He closed his eyes inside his helm and searched the skein of the near future, guiding the exarches against new threats and alerting them before others could appear. It was almost too easy..._

___Suddenly, there was cry from one of the Dire Avengers as more enemy daemonettes and lowly cultists began appearing from the northwest to reinforce their position. Not bothering with any sort of tactics, they leaped straight at the Eldar, with the Scorpions and Banshees meeting them head on with Dire Avengers providing fire from behind them._

___Elohiem walked to the edge of the slope and stood above a group of rangers that were picking off stragglers with their long rifles. He looked out over the small clearing where the battle was taking place, only then did he realize the futility of their situation._

___There was forest all around them, the next attack could come from anywhere. He closed his eyes and searched the skein for an answer to his problems, probing the near futures, and he only saw one. _

___In this future, the Eldar lay decimated around the clearing, blood staining the white snow around them as daemonettes victoriously snatched the spirit stones from the bodies of the Eldar. This planet would be overrun by an unstoppable force of Chaos forces, and it would give the human's more trouble than they were already in. _

___Elohiem refused to believe this, there must be some way out of this mess._

___It was then, that he heard the ***PIT, PAT*** of small footsteps across the snow. Even with sounds of shuriken catapults raining hell upon the servants of the Great Enemy, and the many battle cries that were issued, it was almost as if these footsteps were being directed only at his ears._

___The farseer looked around for the source, but could find nothing as time began to slow. The sound of the ranger's long rifles firing beneath him became prolonged and deep. Shuriken catapults began firing less rapidly and the overhead strike of a Scorpion onto a daemonette began to slow so much until it finally stopped right before the impact. _

___Finally, everything but the sound of the footsteps was silenced as they grew progressively louder. It was then that the farseer began to hear labored breathing and whimpers of pain, the high pitch of the whimpers indicated that the beholder was a child. He looked around, surprised that he could despite that fact that everyone and everything around him was frozen._

___The sound of a deep footsteps and a louder cry of pain caused him to look down the slope._

___And there, slowly making its way across the curved slope, was a human child._

___He had regretfully killed many human children before out of mercy as opposed to sheer hate. Many times he had been on missions where children had been corrupted by daemons, and he had been forced to execute them in bloodily fashions. However, he did those mournfully, even to a human._

___The child was a male, and he was dragging, crawling, and whimpering across the slope, making small blood trail as he did so. Elohiem could see his clothes were tattered from many wounds and his nose was red from the cold. His eyes were streaming tears as he feebly crossed the battlefield._

___Elohiem stepped forward, making a sound of his footprint._

___The child looked up._

___Their eyes met even through Elohiem's ghost helm._

___The farseer was suddenly thrown into the skein of the future. He saw the child's face right before him as it matured and his body grew to be tall, strong, fast, and muscular. Wings like an angel's spread out from his shoulder blades and his eyes glowed a light blue as the environment around him was replaced with the void of space. Elohiem watched as the now mature child rose, spreading his arms to low a giant aura to extend over all Eldar everywhere, protecting them from the horrors of the warp and void._

___As quickly as the vision came, Elohiem was thrust out of it as time began to speed up once more. He looked down and saw the child had moved away from the slope, he watched as a banshee emerged from the Eldar lines to leap over the child and immediately engage a daemonette. The banshee kicked the pink daemonette away and reared back her mane and arms._

___Elohiem knew what she was about to do, and before he could move a muscle, the soul-tearing screech that made the Howling Banshees famous tore through lines of the Chaos forces._

___Most cultists and some daemons fell to their knees, bleeding out of eyes, ears, and noses as the cry of the banshee struck their vulnerable nervous systems, causing some to literally die where they stood._

___The farseer looked at the child and saw he had fallen to his knees as the banshee's cry had affected him as well. Elohiem had expected the screech to kill him outright but surprisingly the child was somehow pulling through. _

___It was then, that he felt something growing within the child, a power of an unimaginable level. Elohiem knew what the human was automatically-a psyker. The power continued to build up exponentially to the obliviousness of the surrounding Eldar and Chaos spawn until finally the human opened his mouth and returned the banshee's cry with a scream of his own._

___Elohiem was suddenly flown onto his back and so were many of the rangers, he looked up over the horizon of the slope to see an expanding dome of crackling blue energy rising and expanding in all directions. He leaped to his feet and watched as the energy field knocked over daemonettes and cultists alike as well as Eldar, who recovered from it quickly and immediately dispatched their foes. Soon, the Eldar were alone once more._

___The farseer searched the ground for the human but he was gone, a trail of blood leading to the east back into the forest. He caught the shape of a slender daemonette disappearing into the forest on the same blood trail._

___He wasted no time in leaping down the slope and sliding down to solid ground and leaped onto the trail of blood, much to the protest of the warlocks and lesser seers that were still on the slope. He disappeared into the forest._

___Elohiem had known what he had seen, and as much as he didn't want to believe it, that human child was the same one he had seen in his dreams. The proposed solution, the everlasting peace, the victor over the darkness. If that daemonette got to him first, it would be all over._

___The farseer searched the skein frantically for the path that the human had taken and was relieved but frightened when he saw the human lying in a hole in the snow, blood trickling out of his wounds that covered his body, he would not last much longer in this cold. Elohiem took off running, ignoring the calls of his fellow Eldar._

___He leaped over small streams and under fallen trees as snowflakes began to rain down from the darkness of the night above._

___He could hear the child whimpering and his breathing become shallow, he was dying. The realization of this caused Elohiem to pump his legs even faster to find the spot where the child lay. Finally, he came across the end of the blood trail._

___The daemonette had beat him to the human._

___Elohiem instinctively drew his witchblade and pointed it at the daemonette, who was kneeling down to pick up the child. The naked human-like warp spawn smiled at the Eldar and rose to her feet._

___"My my Eldar...Do you want the human too? Too bad your race is as arrogant as they are incompetent to see the similarities...I guess I'll have to feed your body to my sisters and crack that little stone of yours, don't worry, it'll all be over soon." she smirked before her lips drew back into a bestial snarl. Her hands instantly shifted and morphed into two crab-like pincers, her eyes glowing a blood red._

___Elohiem did not waver under the threat of the daemonette as he spoke, "The human is coming with me."_

___"We'll just see about that." came the reply from the daemonette. _

___She leaped at the farseer, intending to grab his body but Elohiem moved out of the way, foreseeing her attack and drove the blade upward into the flying form of the daemonette as she landed. He leaned forward and growled, "You are nothing before me warp-spawn. Go back to the hell that created you."_

___His witch blade began to glow as he channeled his psychic powers into it. The daemonette screeched with pain as her eyes and mouth opened to spawn a glowing white light as the witch blade forced Elohiem's will into its fragile body. Finally, the light drew back and the daemonette exploded in a flash of white light, leaving Elohiem unharmed as he sheathed the blade and looked down at the human._

___He had not moved and a smile seemed to be forming on his face, as if he was accepting his death._

___Intelligent for a mere child...thought Elohiem as he moved down to examine the child, who huddled himself up in the hole._

___"__**You will hold his life in your arms Elohiem, and when the time comes, you must choose...the past...one of hatred, arrogance, xenophobia...or the future...to peace, happiness, and the light.**" the light being's words resounded in his head. Once again Elohiem was bombarded with the vision of the child maturing, his face molding and shifting as he aged. His body was perfected into one of the utmost strength and beauty, something only an Eldar could have. The environment was replaced with darkness of space. Elohiem saw the boy rising with his eyes closed and arms spread, a massive aura originating from him as it spread out across all Eldar across the galaxy._

_____But he remained human._

_____A harsh feeling came across Elohiem's thoughts. Leave him, it said, it is a mere primitive and its people care nothing for the survival of our race. Let it pass and continue serving our people as best we can._

_____Elohiem was considering this, before another, lighter thought forced its way into his attention._

_____"**PhoenixKingoftheEldarPhoenixKingoftheEldarPhoenixK ingoftheEldarPhoenixKingoftheEldarPhoenixKingofthe EldarPhoenixKingoftheEldar.**" Many voices that sounded like angels whispered into his ears, all saying the same thing-Phoenix King of the Eldar._

_____"__**This is my legacy...to you.**"_

_______Elohiem reached down and enveloped the child in his arms, lifting him up ever so slightly as to not cause him any more pain. He closed his eyes and allowed his psychic aura to extend over the child, relaying warmth and happiness over him._

_______He turned back towards his warhost with the child in his arms, walking simply as if he had not done a single thing. He felt the child shifting in his arms and saw him open his eyes, the smile faded laughably in an instant_

_______The child did not move as he stared at Elohiem, who didn't know if the child was simply incapable of doing anything about his situation or just unwilling. When he finally came across his warhost, the same warlock that had come to his apartment a couple of cycles ago rushed up to him._

_______"Farseer Elohiem, it is good to see you...oh..." she said as she noticed the child in his arms. The aspect warriors, outcasts, and warlocks all gathered around him, staring at the child in his arms, but Elohiem payed them no attention. There were whispers of concern among them, but Elohiem never diverted his attention from the path in front of him._

_______No one questioned Elohiem's age and experience as he cleared a path for himself as Wave __Serpents glided over the trees and settled into the clearing, preparing the warhost for their retreat._

_Elohiem looked down at the child._

_The child's eyes never left the glowing red monocles of Elohiem's ghost helm._

* * *

**Present Day**

**Craftworld Biel-Tan, Dome of Twilight Gleaming**

Over the past fourteen years, Eldarion had become second to the rangers in terms of moving stealthily around the craftworld. Every Eldar on Biel-tan knew that he was on the massive world ship, and had either come to begrudgingly accept Farseer Elohiem's mandate that he stay on the craftworld until a certain period in the future, or come to accept the fact that he never hindered their daily lives.

Eldarion was used to moving around in the nocturnal cycle, when the domes shed their artificial sunlight and gave way to the void of space. However, Farseer Elohiem had been requesting his presence more often in the daylight, forcing Eldarion to come up with new disguises to find his way to the Dome of the Seers unhindered.

He currently stood at the entrance to his mother's apartment complex, his cloak pulled up over his head and a face mask hid the face that would have been so easily recognized had it not been there. He looked both ways left and right before simply joining a crowd of Eldar walking along the grounds of the Dome of Jovial Enlightenment, one of the many domes that housed Biel-tan's citizens.

His brown cloak matched a group of outcasts that were walking not far from him, and Eldarion walked ever so closer so as to appear somewhat similar to them. So far, no Eldar had picked up anything unusual about him. He made sure to walk proud and tall instead of hunched over and fearful, which would have exposed him right then and there.

He suddenly ducked out of the crowd and into an alleyway where merchants and vendors had set up stalls to sell their intricate products-from spices to bodily manipulators. It made Eldarion think that the Eldar were still clinging to some vane part of their past. An Eldar could change his or her appearance so easily one would think that they'd be one person one day and another the next.

He considered himself lucky that a portion of Biel-tan's aspect warriors were away on a Swordwind, as the populations was noticeably depleted. Biel-tan, being amongst the most zealous of craftworlds that sought to rebuild the old Empire, made sure that almost each and every one of its citizens was trained in some sort of combat-whether it be a guardian or aspect warrior.

Waiting for a couple moments, he pulled his cloak more firmly over his head and ducked back into the crowd, once again, no one noticed. He passed many Eldar on the sides of the streets-lovers, families, friends all going about there business and completely unaware that a human walked among them.

Looking ahead, he saw a terminal to a sky carriage on his right in between, one of the many types of transportation that ran through the Craftworld. The sky carriage was a simple cylindrical compartment that traveled on light rails to adjacent Domes. Picking up his walking speed, he joined a crowd of Eldar as they all piled into a carriage that had just completed its trip around the Craftworld and was now coming up from the ground.

He got in rather and hesitated when he accidentally brushed against a female clad in magnificent green and white robes, her golden hair moving as she turned to face him. Eldarion bowed his head and spoke as elegantly as he could from behind his mask, "My apologies."

"None needed." she replied.

He took his seat on a bench as the carriage lifted upward and away, following its path over the Dome of Twilight Gleaming. The inside of the carriage blinked and Eldarion could now see perfectly below him as the Dome passed beneath him, the photo-reflective panels of the carriage making it seem to the passengers inside as if they were riding on air while anyone viewing the carriage would see a normal transport.

Eldarion closed his eyes behind his mask and focused his breathing, he had done this same routine so many times without garnering too much attention but now the woman he had bumped into, who was actually sitting beside him, looked at him curiously and spoke, "Why do you hide your face?"

It seemed like a straightforward answer but Eldarion closed his mouth almost as soon as he had opened it, instead pondering the question and replying, "Hideousness has no place among our people." he said, pretending to be the outcast that he was.

He wasn't looking at her and silently wished she'd shut up as she raised an eyebrow, "Have you hurt yourself?"

"Rather, others have hurt me."

"Are you a warrior of an aspect shrine?"

"No."

"Then what are you?"

"A castaway...a cosmic castaway."

"An outcast then."

"Correct."

Eldarion breathed a silent sigh of relief, thinking she was done but she pressed on, "What is it like...a life among the stars?"

"Lonely. Plagued by sadness and grief for what once was lost...Biel-tan...my homesickness was too much." he said, silently laughing about how much he was toying with the woman.

"You have returned." she nodded.

"Correct."

"Why is that?"

Eldarion smirked and rolled his eyes as he said, "Family, the strain away was too much."

The female nodded and said, "I could never imagine a life such as yours away from home, how could I contribute to our people if I was light years away studying the mysteries of the universe?"

Eldarion cocked his head to one side, "Mysteries, stories, visions, pictures of the universe to inspire the next generation of our kin to reforge what was lost." implying Biel-Tan rhetoric.

If the woman was interested in Eldarion before, she was now, "Do you know who I am?"

"I'm afraid not." Eldarion instantly replied, growing a bit annoyed at the attention he was getting. He looked up and his heart nearly stopped as he noticed most if not all Eldar either staring at the woman or Eldarion himself. He gulped as silently as he could.

"Oh..." she replied, she sounded genuinely surprised and by the looks of the Eldar in the carriage who had been silently eavesdropping on their conversation, so were they.

The sky carriage began to slow as Eldarion looked beneath his feet-The Dome of the Seers was approaching, he rose and smirked at the looks the Eldar were giving him, they still didn't know who was walking among them and it practically thrilled them about how much he was dancing around conversations.

"I am Fithierenel." the woman said suddenly.

Eldarion raised an eyebrow at the fact that an Eldar of noble blood, House Ulthanesh to be exact, had been sharing a conversation with him this whole time. He also wondered why she was away from the palace of nobles at the center of Biel-Tan in the first place. Though Fithierenel had never heard of Eldarion, the human had heard plenty of her. Fithierenel was about twice Eldarion's own age and although extremely young for an Eldar, she was very vocal about the paths the Craftworld should take among other matters. She was next in line to the Matriarch of House Ulthanesh after her mother but already she sounded like one. Eldarion admired her from afar without so much as a glimpse of her until now. She was already a fine politician and Eldarion could only guess she would make an influential matriarch one day.

Eldarion nodded and said, "My apologies m'lady for my rather...unsubtle tone."

Fithierenel blinked once but a smile began to form on her face and she extended her palm in a friendly greeting, "It is a pleasure to meet you..." her voice trailed off.

Eldarion had only given his name out to a few select Eldar who were either sympathetic to him, found out his name on their own, or simply his own mother and Farseer Elohiem.

"Eldarion. Just Eldarion." he nodded before placing his palm in her hand before swiftly turning to leave the carriage, whose bay doors had opened as passengers either loaded up or got off.

"Eldarion...a beautiful name for one that does not think much of himself...I hope that the next time we meet, you will have decided to discard the mask that is perhaps hindering you more than it is helping you." Fithierenel smiled.

The young human was laughing himself to death inside his own mind but remained stoic on the outside. If this noble ever found out who he really was, who knows what she'd do. Every Eldar on Biel-Tan knew there was a human in residence here, but rarely saw his face out in public and in turn few knew exactly where he was, and Eldarion made sure it was going to stay that way.

He looked at the bay doors as a crowd of passengers began to file in before he looked back at Fithierenel and said, "You are not a seer, thus you cannot make the assumption that we will meet again, which I sincerely hope we do not."

He strode into the crowd of oncoming Eldar, not once looking back at the bewildered noble and Eldar still in the carriage as he disappeared among them, knowing fully that Fithierenel was still trying to locate him from inside the carriage, he ducked out of the terminal and onto the main grounds of the Dome of the Seers.

Despite being one of the most important Domes in the Craftworld, it also was the smallest for few Eldar besides seers and warlocks ever traveled here. Eldarion looked around, noticing that the terminal was one of the few things around. In front of him was the Gardens of Isha-places were seers could meditate and ponder the skein of the future. No buildings except the massive Dome of the Seers within the greater Dome lay around. The Dome was a small semicircle to the north as Eldarion cracked his aching limbs and began his trek.

The Gardens had many pathways to reach the main dome, perhaps too many for Eldarion's tastes, but Elohiem had always managed to find him whenever he had gotten lost. He walked forward across a street and onto the grounds of the gardens, knowing he was safe from most prejudice in here, he pulled back his hood and removed his mask.

The Dome was relatively depopulated today, with most of the seers and warlocks gone on the Swordwind to combat corrupted humans in whatever part of the galaxy that they threatened. Farseer Elohiem however, he elected to stay behind.

_Eldarion_ looked up at the ceiling of the dome and found it to be in perpetual light, for the Dome of the Seers never knew darkness. The boundaries of the dome were made up of a sphere of white oblivion, adding to the mysteriousness of the psychic energies flowing through the Dome itself.

He noticed the variety of colors of the plant and tree life that lined the pathways and admired their beauty, he had never glimpsed such sights ever when he was on Ophelia III, just cold walls and lonely snowfall.

Occasionally he would pass a solitary seer, who would either nod at him or ignore him. The seers were probably the ones who tolerated Elohiem's decision to bring Eldarion aboard the Craftworld the most, for few questioned his age and wisdom. Long before Eldarion's ancestors even came screaming into the galaxy, Elohiem was guiding the seer council through the skein of the future and into the mysteriousness of the webway.

A couple minutes passed before he came upon the bench that he would always meet Elohiem at under the light pink flowers and leaves of a Bola tree that was blowing softly in the artificial wind. He promptly sat down as Elohiem had yet to arrive and looked across from his position to gaze at the many wonders of creation that inhabited the Craftworld.

He closed his eyes and breathed in the wonderful scents of flowers and greenery around him, if he had known this place had existed when he was younger, he would have wished himself to be born an Eldar.

He suddenly frowned at the thought and opened his eyes.

_You are a heretic, a forsaken heretic, and that was all you ever will be _said a hissing voice in his head. Eldarion had long pondered the thoughts of such a revelation before, and after much research and thought processes, he still hadn't come to a decision yet.

He was a human of mankind, living on a Craftworld believing that a bonesinger was his mother and he was being held here for the past 14 years by an elderly farseer who everyday refused to tell him why he was here. He'd been tutored in the Lexicanum, dialects, speech, and history of the Eldar people so much he could have been a philosopher himself if he so wished...yet...what was it all for?

In his escapades to Talcor's libraries back on Ophelia III, he'd only read about the great battles of the Emperor's son's against heretics and the forces of Chaos, not once did he open a xenologist's research or anything else. He'd long figured out from stories brought back by Elohiem and other Eldar that humanity had a deep hatred for everything and everyone that was not human.

And they would not stop killing until every single alien, innocent or guilty, was purged from the galaxy.

Eldarion wondered if that was truly the Emperor of Mankind's wish before he was entombed on the Golden Throne, or it was simply a gesture that over the millennia had been perverted by fanatics. He always thought of the Emperor as a benevolent leader, one who saw no difference between a beggar and Space Marine on a moral level, he loved each and every human that ever was, is, and will be.

Did he love the ones that had betrayed him? Dropped virus bombs on Eldar maiden worlds? Caused the extinction of innocent aliens? Those driven by hatred and anger?

Did he love Eldarion?

Suddenly, he was roused from his thoughts by what seemed like whispering voices in the wind.

"**_____PhoenixKingoftheEldarPhoenixKingoftheEldarPhoenixK ingftheEldarPhoenixKingoftheEldarPhoenixKingoftheE ldarPhoenixKingoftheEldar._**" he thought he heard them say.

He looked behind him towards the tree and all around, but saw no one. He looked to his left, and raised an eyebrow as farseer Elohiem approached, wearing trademark dark red with a white trim, some of Biel-Tan's distinct colors.

The farseer had his hair tied up in a single braid that fell over his right shoulder and walked with his hands behind his back. His emerald eyes sparkling as he began to smile at the sight of Eldarion, who made to stand but Elohiem raised a hand.

"Sit down Eldarion." he said

The human nodded and tentatively sat back down as Elohiem gathered his robes and sat next to him. For a couple minutes they both stared at the environment around them, it was only after a quad-winged bird flew by that Elohiem spoke.

"A serpent of Khaine clings to your heart Eldarion. Why do you let it?"

"I am human, no Eldar God has interests within me."

"A metaphor for a type of anger that grips most of our people before they join an aspect shrine. I sense yours is born of frustration."

"They called mother a whore...among other names."

"Did they now? That is very...unusual of them to do so even to a fellow Eldar. For fourteen passes I have watched you show nothing but the utmost love and respect for your mother, I can see now why she does not let their insults cloud her vision."

"Mother and you are the only family I have...even if you aren't...human."

"So you've made your choice then."

"Did I even have one to begin with?"

"Of course you did, you could have kicked and screamed your way right to some annoyed Eldar's blade but instead you chose the path of solitude and control, that is the reason why now so many do not think much of you as they once did."

"If I had decided to become some glorified servant of the Emperor, rampaging and everything..."

"You would have been silenced instantly...and my dreams wasted."

"Dreams?"

Elohiem shifted in his seat and spoke, "Do you see that Decala tree in front of us? There are myths and legends about its leaves, some say they contain the souls of dead prophets and philosophers like the Infinity Circuit holds the spirits of the fallen. They sometimes whisper the destinies of those who are conflicted about their future."

Eldarion followed Elohiem's gaze to the albino tree and watched its normal leaves float in the wind, despite its color, Eldarion did not think much of it.

"**_____PhoenixKingoftheEldarPhoenixKingoftheEldarPhoenixK ingftheEldarPhoenixKingoftheEldarPhoenixKingoftheE ldarPhoenixKingoftheEldar._**" whispered the voices again, causing Eldarion to shift his eyes across the dome but once again saw nothing.

"Do you believe them?"

"Oh there are many prophecies and myths that do not end up becoming true, there are many futures but one path."

"I just wish that some higher power would simply walk up to me and tell me I was destined to be a Space Marine or a philosopher. I once believed that you were the Emperor carrying me into paradise and since then I have never known a warmth like that feeling besides my mother's."

"I was not to different when I was but a young seer, I wondered if determining the right paths to take and predicting the future was actually my calling. But that was it, it was my calling and it took me many paths to discover that. Do not be so keen on believing the answers will come to you in an instant."

"But when will they? I have been here fourteen years and not once have I heard you speak of _why _I am here. I asked you that question the first time we met here and you simply brushed it away. I knew coming back to it was a fool's gambit and yet I ask myself it every night before I shut my eyes, because I know the answer will never come from you."

"Well done, you are quite right, it will not come from me."

"Huh? Well then who?"

Elohiem smiled and looked at Eldarion, "I don't know boy..." his voice trailed off before he spoke again, "When I think of my sister, I'll always remember how hearty she looks, sitting there in her shop playing her bagpipe to summon the wraithbone...talking about her son...her son...who defies everything any Eldar has ever thought about a human...and how much she loved him."

The farseer noticed Eldarion was trying to prevent tears from forming in his eyes as he rubbed his face, "Your mother has shown me that you are capable of being something more than just a human, or any Eldar, something far greater than either my sister or I could possibly imagine."

Elohiem knew he had Eldarion's attention now, "When I searched your past, I saw what you did Eldarion, I watched you lead your friends when no one else had the strength to. You feared death but the weight of responsibility of your friends overshadowed that fear, and you persevered."

He smiled once more and asked, "Doesn't that tell you something? That you cared so much for those that look to you that you would rather have died rather than see one of them harmed?"

Eldarion shook his head as a tear fell and stained the walkway beneath his feet, "I failed."

"So you think, victory does not always look as pretty or as glorious as the stories make them out to be. But victory is what is is, nothing more." Elohiem nodded.

"You brought me here to wallow in my failures?" Eldarion mumbled.

"No, I did not, for it is in believing that you have failed where you have actually succeeded that you are ready, and just in time as well." Elohiem said as he reached into his robes.

Eldarion watched as Elohiem produced an object that fit in the palm of his hand, it looked like an iron representation of a bird of prey. Elohiem handed the object to Eldarion and watched as the boy gazed at it and lifted it to the light and looked over it with wondering eyes.

"Do you know what that is?"

"It is some sort of falcon, but unlike any I've ever seen."

"That is because it as falcon that has not been seen since the Golden Ages, when the Gods walked among us." Elohiem said as Eldarion turned to look at him, Elohiem nodded and continued, "That is the rune of Kurnous, consort of Isha, Father of the Eldar, and God of the Hunt."

Eldarion looked back at the object and twirled it in his fingers before asking, "What does he have to do with me?"

"The God of the Hunt is as watchful as he is stealthily. You want the answer to why you are here? I cannot answer that Eldarion as I have already told you. Kurnous will guide you through the Infinity Circuit, shielding you from the watchful eyes of the Eldar around you. The Infinity Circuit, is where your questions will be answered." Elohiem nodded.

Eldarion blurted out, "But...but the Infinity Circuit is for Eldar genealogy only! How can I possibly even summon a link to the circuit? Even if I did, do you have any idea what Biel-Tan will do to me if I am discovered? You brought me here all those years ago, surely you must know something."

Elohiem shook his head, instead pulling back the sleeves covering his left arm, revealing a heavily crystallized structure that covered most of his left arm was slowing itching its way up and down. Eldarion's eyes grew wide as he realized what this mean't.

"Correct Eldarion, soon I will be joining the rest of the seers who have gone before me in the Hall of Crystal Seers. This would not be happening if my duties were not already completed. My time of teaching is nearing its end." he said.

"But why all this now? Why not years ago? Why not yesterday?" Eldarion asked.

"Because today, someone told me you were ready. You are ready because the distinction of friend or foe between you and the Eldar has reached its zenith. You see no barrier between you where others might erect one." Elohiem said as he stood up and pointed to the rune, "Your answers have always laid with Asuryan." he promptly turned on his heel and left Eldarion sitting on the bench.

Eldarion looked down at the rune of Kurnous. He hadn't the slightest idea of how this was all going to work out, but if Elohiem believed that the God of the Hunt was going to aid him this one time, then he figured it was going to be worth it. Finally, he'd be able to discover his purpose, the whole reason why he was here, why he was alive in the first place. He clenched the rune in his fist and made to stand but suddenly his ears perked with the whispering of voices.

"**_____PhoenixKingoftheEldarPhoenixKingoftheEldarPhoenixK ingftheEldarPhoenixKingoftheEldarPhoenixKingoftheE ldarPhoenixKingoftheEldar._**"


	4. The Impossibility Of It All

**Craftworld Biel-Tan, Dome of Twilight Gleaming**

**14 years ago...**

_The door was thrown open and the female Eldar threw herself into her apartment before breaking down onto her knees and sobbing. No amount of comfort or companionship could aid her now as her cries echoed down the hall of the complex, causing some Eldar close to her own apartment to shift uncomfortably. The bonesinger Lilien had been cursed with something that the Eldar race knew all too well._

_Infertility._

_She could not contribute to the next generation of her kin and with her brother Elohiem already locked on the Path of the Seer, her parents line and that of her ancestors was spent, when the siblings died, so too would another line of Eldar that had survived the Fall. Tears streamed down her cheeks, she had just come from the Dwellings of Isha, where she had been given the news. _

_Lilien was a bonesinger, a masterful psyker able to bend and shape the mysterious wraithbone using her musical bag pipe practically at will. She had hoped to find a life companion sometime in the future, but now, no male would want her. She was young as well, no more than fifty passes or so but already looked more to the future than her companion bonesingers would have been comfortable with._

_Now, she was mostly dead. She thought about returning to her workshop, but the thought of playing dreary and sorrowful music in the presence of her companions caused her to shake her head and misery. She let loose another wail before slumping against a nearby wall, the tears staining the cosmetics applied to her face. Her crimson hair was as beautiful as could be hours earlier and now it looked like she hadn't touched it in many passes._

_Wiping the tears from her eyes, she picked herself up and moved to the kitchen to pour herself a glass of moon water, a common beverage among the Eldar. She looked down at the silvery liquid before she downed the glass, igniting her taste buds with flavor, it brought her some relief but not enough to shake the feeling of sorrow clenching her heart._

_She looked down at her light skin and white robes customary of a bonesinger, she looked like she had aged centuries in only a matter of minute and yet still nothing could move the feeling of dread within her. Thinking of the only thing she could do, she turned to her bag pipe sitting on the couch, picked it up, and began to play._

_Her bag pipe played the story of her life-her and her twin brother's birth, childhood, Elohiem's passive nature compared to Lilien who was restless and his eventual leaving of their family to the Path of the Seer. The instrument rose between happiness, uncertainty and finally sorrow as Lilien finished her song later that nocturnal cycle._

_"Is this the price I pay for my recklessness?" she murmured to herself._

_For many more cycles after that, Lillien did her best to go to her workshop and mend and shape the wraith bone as best she could without letting her sorrow overwhelm her but as the cycles drew on, her mentor, Klentrithu, noticed that her current state was taking its toll._

_"I know what you are experiencing is no doubt tragic and I could not think of a better artist that Asuryan's curse has afflicted. I am truly sorry for what has transpired. Perhaps you need something to take your mind off the news." he said, folding his arms as he looked at Lilien's pitiful attempt to complete the aft section of a small starship._

_Lilien looked up from her bloodshot eyes and looked at her mentor's aging face and striking purple eyes. Klentrithu had walked many paths of the Eldar before finally ending up on that of the bonesinger. _

_"Leaving the craftworld is meaningless, seeking the counsel of my brother is useless." Lilien muttered._

_"Perhaps it is in denying what you think will not help you that the soltution lies in." Klentrithu._

_Klenthrithu's words echoed in Lilien's mind for many more cycles. Her brother had recently been dispatched on a Swordwind and she had not contacted her acquaintances on other Craftworlds for many passes. Looking at the Infinity Circuit node sitting in the middle of the room, she glided over to it and pressed her palm against the flat surface. She sent a message for her brother for when he returned, a telepathic feeling of sorrow, regret, and loneliness, she was sure he'd get it._

_The next cycle, she was playing her bagpipe in an attempt to alleviate her stress. She hadn't left her apartment in many cycles but everywhere she looked, even at herself, something was unclean. She threw her bagpipe to the side of the couch and wailed once more._

_No contribution, no future._

_Suddenly, the door chime to her apartment sounded and she reluctantly removed herself from her wallowing to get up. She opened the door and she stepped back and her eyes widened as she saw who it was._

_Her brother, Elohiem, stood there wearing his traditional farseer robes._

_"Elohiem, I...I...didn't..." she began._

_"I received your message, and I am sorry for the curse that has been laid upon you." he said straightforward._

_Lilien held her head low and muttered, "I did not expect you so soon."  
_

_"The Swordwind was successful." he nodded._

_"I am happy that it is." she formed a weak smile._

_"No, you are not. You make an ill attempt to be happy for something you have not cared for." Elohiem said bluntly._

_Lilien made a confused look before Elohiem said, "I know you have been troubled as of late, lack of sleep, wrapped in sorrow, and the missing of all things has wrapped itself around your heart and mind only because you let it. It is quite obvious that I don't need my abilities to see that."_

_"I don't understand. I never wanted any of this to happen." she said._

_"We have not seen each other in five passes and yet you have cast that thought aside, does that tell you something?" Elohiem asked, raising an eyebrow, "It means you have the ability to emerge from your grieving. However, I sense your grieving still has a nearly indomitable grip on you."_

_Lilien nodded solemnly. _

_"I have the solution." he smiled.  
_

_Lilien looked up._

_Elohiem stepped aside, revealing a small figure with its head drooped low. It wore a simple white tunic and black leggings customary of young Eldar, but Lilien's eyes were immediately drawn to its slightly rounded ears, short black hair, and dark skin color._

_A human._

_Lilien stepped back in shock and covered her mouth as the child raised his head and looked at Lilien with eyes wide. For a moment no one spoke as the young boy's breathing picked up._

_"Elohiem! Have you lost your mind?! A Mon-Keigh?! On Biel-Tan?! Have the Gods skewered your runes?!" she said vehemently._

_"I rescued him on the last Swordwind." Elohiem replied._

_"And what? You seek to keep him as a pet? That primitive has no place on our home!" she snarled._

_"No, you will look after him. You always wanted a son. He always wanted a mother. What more possibly could you want? He is not some brainless greenskin or murdering zealous human that we have heard all too much about. While your curse prevents you from conceiving, I believe the boy will grow on you." Elohiem nodded._

_Lilien made shocked sounds, unable to form words to comprehend her brother's madness. Her eyes switched from the human to her brother very quickly, still unable to form words._

_Elohiem said, "Go on, young one, there is no need to be afraid." as he placed his hand on the boy's shoulder._

_The boy looked at Elohiem then at Lilien, who said, "No, absolutely not, I will not have a..."_

_Elohiem suddenly rushed forward and placed his hand in Lilien's and touched her forehead as he said, "Believe."_

_Lilien was suddenly thrust out of her apartment and into the void of space, she covered her mouth as she looked around. Everywhere she looked, she saw planets, stars, nebulas, and galaxies swirling about. She had no idea what to think. She looked down and saw she was standing on basically nothing at all, just the darkness of the void._

_She looked around and called out, "Elohiem? Elohiem!"_

_"This...is what I have seen." Elohiem said, who appeared next to her. He gestured in front of him and Lilien's eyes grew wide as they saw the human boy standing there un-moving. She gasped as she saw him grow and mature, become taller, stronger, and bigger. Wings protruded from his back and he spread himself out and rose into the darkness. His eyes glowed a deep blue as a massive aura of colors burst forth from him, covering maiden worlds and Craftworlds alike._

_Protecting them._

_She was suddenly brought back to her apartment where Elohiem let go of her and gently pushed the human inside. He looked at Lilien and said, "I will return in the next cycle to check your progress." he said before he closed the door and swiftly left._

_Lilien was at a loss for words as she looked at the human, who stared back with eyes filled with...fear. For a while neither moved until Lilien narrowed her eyes and snarled, "Never. My brother's mind has truly been cast into oblivion."_

_She turned on her heel and swiftly made to her way to her room and slammed the door shut before sliding down it and began weeping. The sorrow and misery coming back to haunt her. Now her brother shows up out of nowhere and thrusts this human child upon her? How has no one else seen what he has done? So many questions flew around in her mind but she found herself unable to answer any any of them._

_"By Isha...Why me...Why?" she whimpered before her ears caught the sound of something outside the door. Her ears perked as she heard sorrowful whimpers coming from the other side of the door. They sounded so similar to her own. She peaked open the door and looked at the human._

_The human lay on the ground, weeping along with her._

* * *

**Craftworld Biel-Tan, Dome of Twilight Gleaming**

**Present Time...**

Kurnous, the God of the Hunt, consort of Isha, and Father of the Eldar race, how was he supposed to help Eldarion discover his true purpose? From his tutoring with Elohiem, Eldarion knew all about the pantheon of Eldar Gods, either in hiding or already consumed at the hands of She Who Thirsts, otherwise known as Slaanesh.

The fact that an Eldar's fate could rest in the jaws of a Chaos God sickened Eldarion, it made him angry to think that his mother was vulnerable to that wretched creature, however, Isha's tears prevented such a fate and for that, Eldarion was happy.

But where did humans go?

_Does it even matter?_ Eldarion asked himself as he sat in his mother's apartment, staring at the Infinity Circuit node jutting out of the floor near the balcony. The node was an hourglass shaped object with a flat surface at the top for access to the Circuit. From there, the Eldar were able to commune with each other, visit past memories and those long dead, as well as share all sorts of information with each other.

He looked at the eagle run in his palm, given to him by Elohiem. From what he had been told, Kurnous used birds of prey when he hunted and this was his most favorite-keen, aware, and deadly. For fourteen years Eldarion had wondered why he had not died in that cold snowy hole on Ophelia III, was this the day he would discover why?

He knew both his mother and Elohiem were keeping something from him and as much as it irritated him, it was a feeling he had grown to understand about the Eldar people and the way secrets and rumors were kept hidden. With the Eldar trying to keep themselves from extinction, it was right to keep such things hidden from prying eyes and meddling hands.

He looked at the rune once more, questions and accusations flurried around his mind, but none greater than the urge to discover his purpose. Every being in the Immaterium had a purpose, as strange, beautiful, and terrible that they might be.

_But how do I do this? _Eldarion asked himself as he got up and walked over to the node. The node's interface swirled like a silvery liquid, awaiting its true user Lilien. Luckily, Lilien was gone for the day visiting old acquaintances and would not be back for some time, as far as she knew, Eldarion was still with Elohiem.

He cautiously reached out his hand, disregarding all thoughts in his mind but one. He had never even touched the node before because his mother had scolded him whenever he got curious. As his fingers got closer, he shook with anticipation and fear before suddenly drawing them back.

"This is outrageous, a human about to access the Infinity Circuit? What a joke." he muttered.

He suddenly yelped in pain and dropped the rune of Kurnous onto the floor, he suddenly realized that he'd clenched the rune a little too hard and the arrow in the talons of the eagle had penetrated his skin. He bent down and retrieved the rune and lifted it up to the light coming from the balcony.

Suddenly his vision focused, and he noticed that the arrow in the eagle's talons pointed straight at the Infinity Circuit node. Eldarion looked at the rune then at the node before slowly walking back over to it. He reached out his fingers once more and pressed them against the node as he'd seen his mother do so many times before.

Nothing happened.

His fingers were touching the exact same placements as his mother's but as he already knew, the Infinity Circuit recognized only Eldar genealogy, not a human's. He sighed and removed his hand, he was about to turn away when his eyes suddenly shot back to the Infinity Circuit. A shape was forming on the interface.

The rune of Kurnous.

Eldarion looked around to assure himself that no one was around before holding the rune carefully in his palm and placing it in the shape that had formed on the interface. At first he felt as if tiny tendrils had emerged from the interface to attach to his skin before his vision flashed and he was suddenly brought out of his mother's apartment.

When he opened his eyes, he was no longer in his mother's apartment, but he didn't even have a body, everywhere he looked it was just a gray sparkling cloud of fog and clouds.

_Is this the Infinity Circuit? _He asked himself, looking around. He wasn't even sure if this was possible or not, surely no human could have been capable of interfacing with something specifically and designed only for Eldar? A theory flashed across his mind and he shook at the possibility. Looking around_, _he began to see what looked like long stretching filaments of bright light beginning to dart in and out of the Infinity Circuit, connecting, traveling, and arriving.

Perhaps these were the actual consciousnesses of Eldar that were accessing the Infinity Circuit at the time. Elohiem had described the interior of the psychic realm more so than Lilien had cared for, and Eldarion began to reawaken vague descriptions.

_The Infinity Circuit is not just a place for the dead, but extra universe for Eldar to communicate, share, and learn. It serves its purposes as a final resting place as well as a vast library equally._ said Elohiem from one of his lessons.

Eldarion tried to step but realized he had no body. How was he supposed to move? How did he even know he was moving? His virtual eyes looked around to see the filaments of passing Eldar darting around the Infinity Circuit. Suddenly, something caught his eyes. A light brown aura was approaching from directly in front of him and as it got closer, it began to take the form of a massive Eldar._  
_

Eldarion's eyes widened as he noticed many familiar skins of beasts resting across the Eldar's skin. His muscular form barely contained by his bestial trophies, a dark hood cast a shadow that covered down to his mouth. An ancient bow was cast around his chest and back around behind him. On his shoulder, rested a familiar bird of prey.

A falcon.

_Impossible_ Eldarion thought, _How can this be?_

Eldarion shook with fear and anticipation as the Eldar arrived right in front of where Eldarion thought he was. The Eldar looked down and knelt before him, placing a hand on Eldarion's shoulder which his surprise, had just appeared.

"Without me, they will sense you." the Eldar said, his voice the epitome of a gruff hunter.

"Who? Who can sense me? Who are you?" Eldarion blurted out, unaware that he could now speak.

A smile formed on the mouth of the Eldar, "What does your rune tell you?"

Eldarion's breath picked up as he stood in the shadow of who he assumed to be none other than Kurnous, the God of the Hunt.

"But...but...you were lost! During the Fall!" Eldarion said, "I read all about the pantheon of Gods."

Kurnous chuckled, "We planned far ahead so that we may never truly be separated from out kin." he said, rising up and taking Eldarion by the hand, "Come, there is not much time." With that, Eldarion thought he began to rise into the Infinity Circuit as Kurnous led the way to wherever he was taking him. They passed many Eldar on the way, but no one, thanks to Kurnous, ever knew or suspected that a human was inside the Infinity Circuit.

Eldarion looked around, he could see messages being sent, conversations taking place, orders sent here and there, truly the Infinity Circuit was not just the graveyard that many solemnly depicted it to be.

As far as he knew, Kurnous seemed to be leading him away from the hub of Eldar consciousnesses and actually delving deep down into what Eldarion looked like a shadowy area. This was as far as Eldarion ever studied under Elohiem, he knew not what lay beyond this point and neither would Elohiem tell him.

"I...Where are we going?" he asked.

Kurnous did not look at Eldarion but said, "To the space between spaces."

Eldarion understood the reference immediately, the Webway. The extra-dimensional realm which allowed for space-faring ships to travel and trade to be conducted unhindered by daemonic entities such as ones that humans might encounter in the warp. He had given up asking more questions, for Kurnous seemed to have his mind set straight on somehow getting to the Webway. A wave of fear passed over Eldarion at the thought that his mother might walk in on him interfacing with the Infinity Circuit.

"Fear not child, no one is aware of us but us and the one we will meet." Kurnous said, seeming to lean this way and that into the shadowy realm. Suddenly, the shadowy realm seemed to mutate and disorientate, as if it was shape-shifting around Eldarion's very form until suddenly it was all calm and all Eldarion could see was a narrow tunnel that was encased in glowing, alternating golden light.

The Webway.

Although he had never seen it, he knew just by looking at that this was the real deal. Cities could be built here, people could breathe and live their lives here, and by people, he mean't any Eldar, for no other race had ever gained access to the Webway since the time when the Emperor of Mankind walked among his people.

_Emperor? Human? _The questions his mind was asking him were being shot down before they could reach the better parts of his thought processes. Kurnous nudged Eldarion on through the Webway, "Come, he is waiting."

Eldarion gulped, who could Kurnous be referring to? Could he be referring to another God? However, he'd given up trying to ask these questions for he knew that this manifestation of the God of the Hunt would dodge them. It felt as if he'd been walking forever until Eldarion began to hear what he thought was light humming coming from directly in front of him. He squinted and thought he saw a large vague shape jutting out in the middle of the Webway.

As the pair got closer, Eldarion realized that there was someone sitting on some type of rocky throne, the throne of course dwarfing its occupant. The figure sat cross legged and appeared to be wearing the most elaborate skin and body suit Eldarion had ever seen. Colorful blues, reds and yellows dotted the figure's garments as it sat humming to itself atop the throne. Kurnous and Eldarion stopped walking when they were only a couple yards away from the foot of the throne, but the motley figure continued humming.

Kurnous cleared his throat.

_Wait, God's need to clear their throats? _Eldarion thought.

The figure stopped humming, uncrossed its legs and peered over its seat on the throne and from there, Eldarion got a good view of its face. The face he assumed was hidden behind some sort of white mask with two ruby red eye pieces where its eyes should be. Where its mouth should be, was widened into an eternal grin with gritted teeth, a couple symbols dotted the mask and besides the red mohawk that ran from the top of its head down to the back of his neck, no much else stuck out to Eldarion.

The figure practically squealed with delight as it acrobatically leaped off the thrown, landed right in front of Eldarion and enveloped him in a bone crushing hug. Definitely female by the sound of the voice.

"Its you! Its really you!" the woman said, her voice sounding like a song rather than just a straight voice.

Eldarion tried to force himself out of the grip but the woman was just too strong as she flailed him around like a rag doll, squealing and jumping with joy. Finally, the woman let him down and Eldarion gasped.

"Who are you?"

"Isn't it obvious my dear boy? How can you not recognize a servant of the Laughing God when you see one?" She said, cocking her head to the side.

"A Harlequin?" Eldarion echoed, "I've only heard vague stories, nothing to prepare for whomever I now stand before..." his voice trailing off.

"To my fellow performers I am known as the Jack of Hearts, but you may just call me Jack for short, but enough with formalities! You have finally matured!" she said again, clapping her hands together.

Eldarion narrowed his eyes, "Your speech suggests that you have been watching me for a very long time. That is most unnerving."

"Watching you? Oh no child we haven't been watching you...we've always _known _about you. Why, I even had to dance my most extravagant routine yet for my master in order for me to switch places with him to be here!" She said as she twisted on her heels in a slight demonstration of her dance.

Eldarion turned to Kurnous, who had taken his place to the side of the throne, his head bowed in a dormant state.

Jack too turned to Kurnous, "The Laughing God sends his thanks noble hunter, he looks forward to the gathering." Kurnous simply nodded in response.

"Why have you brought me here? There are as many questions in my head as there are stars in the universe." Eldarion said, looking at Jack.

"Quite right...Who am I? How is this possible...How is Kurnous visible...Why are you a human living on a Craftworld...Do these questions sound familiar?" Jack asked.

Eldarion nodded.

"Well then forget them all because I will only answer one question today, and you can probably guess which question I will answer. I'll give you three guesses" Jack said, Eldarion could almost hear the smile on her face.

"Where am I?"

"Oh, so close...guess again." she said, dancing around Eldarion.

"How is this all possible?"

"Wrong again my dear...one more now." she pouted.

Eldarion thought for a moment, what question could be so monumental that it put all other questions to shame? Was it even out there? The question that could answer everything he'd ever questioned about himself?

He looked up at Jack and spoke, "Who am I?"

The harlequin performed a neat cartwheel and clapped her hands, "Correct! Well done! Bravo!"

Eldarion didn't know what to do.

"Alright then you are correct, I have woken up to that question every day of my life and its answer eludes me. If you say that you can answer that question, then please tell me." Eldarion said, his heart beginning to beat faster and faster.

"Oh but of course my dear but first you must understand something that the fact that you are even alive is a testament to what you are to become...or in fact...you always have been. The realization of such a straightforward answer might...unnerve you." she said.

Eldarion nodded, he couldn't keep himself contained, he had to know.

With that, the Harlequin spread her arms in an extravagant pose, cleared her throat and said, "Welcome to the Domain of Cegorach...Welcome...Phoenix King of the Eldar..."

* * *

**A/N: Sorry this chapter's so short, I've been busy actually writing future chapters to this story, actually helps with writer's block. Next one will be longer I promise.**


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